TORONTO -- Edwin Encarnacion homered twice and Rajai Davis scored three runs to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 9-7 win over the Boston Red Sox at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night.
Encarnacion launched a two-run blast into the fifth deck in the fifth inning and later restored Toronto's lead with a two-run shot in the seventh to help the Blue Jays end a four-game losing skid.
Toronto (10-17) added an insurance run in the eighth when Colby Rasmus drove in J.P. Arencibia with a one-out single. Reliever Steve Delabar (2-1) got two outs for the victory and Casey Janssen pitched the ninth for his seventh save.
David Ortiz homered and drove in four runs for the Red Sox, who had their five-game winning streak come to an end. Boston still owns the best record in the major leagues at 18-8.
Toronto starter Brandon Morrow allowed six hits and three earned runs over five innings, striking out seven and walking three.
Davis opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. The speedy designated hitter drew a walk and stole second before scoring easily on a Jose Bautista double off the centre-field wall.
Morrow, who fanned Ortiz and Mike Napoli to end the first inning, struck out the side in the second inning.
Toronto put up three runs in the third after loading the bases with nobody out. Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C., hit a liner that just missed Lester's head and sailed into centre field.
Lester appeared a little rattled after the play. He hit Davis with a pitch and walked Bautista on four straight pitches.
Boston catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia tried to pick Bautista off first base but his throw was wide, allowing Lawrie and Davis to score without a throw. Bautista moved to second and later scored on a double down the left-field line by Arencibia.
The Red Sox touched up Morrow for a couple runs in the fourth inning.
Ortiz hit a rainbow solo shot to centre field and Mike Carp added a solo blast to deep right-centre later in the frame. It was the third homer of the season for Ortiz and the first for Carp.
Morrow walked Saltalamacchia but got out of the jam when Lawrie dived to his left to spear a hard-hit ball from Will Middlebrooks to start a nifty 5-4-3 double play.
The Red Sox cut into the lead again in the fifth inning. After a pair of singles, Dustin Pedroia lashed a pitch to centre field to score Stephen Drew from second base.
Rasmus came up throwing but was a little high with his throw home. Drew slid wide to avoid the tag while dragging his hand across the plate, making it a one-run game.
Morrow struck out Ortiz and picked off Pedroia at second base to get out of the jam.
Encarnacion made it a 6-3 game in the bottom half of the fifth. He hit a blast to left field -- estimated at 419 feet -- and became the 14th player to hit a homer into the stadium's fifth deck and first since Shelley Duncan on May 31, 2011.
Jonny Gomes hit his first homer of the season -- a solo shot -- off reliever Aaron Loup in the sixth inning.
Boston took advantage of some sloppy defence in the seventh to take the lead for the first time. Daniel Nava hit a potential double-play ball to Munenori Kawasaki but the Toronto shortstop threw wide to second baseman Maicer Izturis.
Delabar relieved Loup and walked Pedroia to load the bases. That set the stage for Ortiz, who stroked a double to right-centre field that brought three runs across.
Boston starter Jon Lester gave up five earned runs and six hits over six innings. He walked two batters and had five strikeouts.
Reliever Junichi Tazawa (2-1) shouldered the loss.
The game took three hours 14 minutes to play. Announced attendance was 22,915.
Notes: It was Encarnacion's second multi-homer game of the season. He leads the team with nine homers, one more than Arencibia. ... Toronto left-hander Mark Buehrle (1-1) is scheduled to start Wednesday night against Clay Buchholz (5-0). J.A. Happ (2-1) is tabbed to start the series finale Thursday night against Boston's Ryan Dempster (1-2). ... The Red Sox activated Joel Hanrahan from the 15-day disabled list before the game. To make the room on the 25-man roster, fellow right-hander Daniel Bard was optioned to double-A Portland.
Entertainment Plaza - TV, Movies, Sports, Music
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99
Babe Of The Month
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonth.html
Hunk Of The Month
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonthman.html
No comments:
Post a Comment